Is the transport really of much importance to the final sonic result? Why not put a CD into a cheap DVD player and feed it to this DAC?
$1500 would stretch me (and no doubt others) a little, but that would be less of an issue if the source unit for the music is not of major importance. In other words, the DAC would be the real "front end", in a way. The price becomes trivial over long service - my current main CD player has been in constant use for 15 years, so the original purchase price has turned out to be modest in the long run.
DocB's comment reminds me that I actually have a Mac mini, too, sitting in a cupboard for the last year since I built a Hackintosh. If I could use it without a monitor, controlled from an ipod touch (no iPhone), it would be nice to bring it back into service. Is that possible?
From my listening to it the S/PDIF inputs (coax or optical) are fairly immune to source differences. They are not completely immune, but pretty close. Everything I have tried has sounded very good, the best sounding ones are only slightly better sounding than the worst. So yes you can get very good results with pretty much anything you plug into it.
The USB input seems to have a bit more variability than the S/PDIF inputs. The BEST USB is a bit better than the best S/PDIF. But again it is not huge.
The BEST sound from this DAC seems to be with the USB input with a good USB cable (the Supra is superb) and a computer that has been tricked out for audio use, JUST audio use, scripts that turn off unnecessary stuff, audiophile player etc.
Note that NO configuration sounds bad, the lowest SQ out if this is still superb, it's just that if you really want to get into it you can wring a little bit more.
Going with the upcoming battery supply will probably be the biggest improvement.
John S.
